Vincent: A Tale of Adventure
by YoRork
Summary: Vincent was a retired BoS member when he met the Lone Wanderer from Vault 101. After that day his life changed forever...Rated M for Violence  Blood and Gore , Language, Alcohol and Drug references, and maybe more later...
1. Chapter 1: For Her Father

**Chapter 1: For Her Father**

I looked from left to right trying to figure out what happened to the kid, we had only been in the Capitol Building for maybe 10 minutes before we got caught up in a battle between the Talon Company and Super Mutants. There were bodies everywhere but they were all either mutants or dressed in the black Talon armor. I ran forward through a double door with my hunting rifle ready to fire. I stopped as soon as I went through because I heard some footsteps and turned to my right just in time to see a merc and dodge the shot from his pistol. I fired a shot from my rifle and it hit him right between the eyes and he dropped. Right when I saw the wall behind him turn red I went the opposite way down the hall and saw someone take the corner in front of me. I slowly rounded the corner and saw it was the kid from Vault 101.

"Hey kid! Over here!" I whispered loudly.

The kid turned around and ran back towards me.

"Get down!" I yelled.

She dropped down and I fired twice at the Mutant behind her, two shots to the head, one in his left eye and one in his forehead, brains splattered across the wall and floor.

"What the fuck are you doing? You were supposed to wait for me!" I yelled at her.

"I couldn't find you and figured you'd want me to get the papers if you couldn't!" The kid shot back at me.

"Fine. Whatever. We need to stick together if we want to get passed everyone and grab them." I told her.

We were sent here by the Brotherhood of Steel, they had sent in two of their own people to retrieve important documents about the "Enclave." Unfortunately, that was a few days ago. They sent us in to hopefully find them and if not at least find the papers, they said without them, the wasteland could be a whole new place, and not in a good way for us.

"According to the Brotherhood, their last transmission with the Knights was north of here through those doors." I pointed to the double doors down the hallway.

We started towards the door when we heard a bunch of gunshots and a huge slam followed by a merc flying through the doors. His side was completely crushed in and blood was coming out of his mouth, we looked at each other and proceeded over to the door, what we saw inside was something I thought I would never see again…

Before we get too ahead of ourselves, lets go back a few weeks ago to when I first met the kid from Vault 101. You know what? Even before that, let me tell you a little about myself. My name is Vincent; everyone just calls me Vince though, and I am also from Vault 101. After many hard years of adventuring and fighting I was muscular and my hair was starting to gray, you could still tell though that my natural hair color was black. I had a messy head of hair with a scraggly looking beard on my face, everyone knew me and I wasn't someone to mess with but I was never the one looking for a fight.

Almost twenty years ago the vault doors were opened to let in a wandering doctor and his baby girl, during that time I was 21 years old and was very bored of the life within the vault. The G.O.A.T. exam said I was to be a barber and after a few years of that it can get very tiresome. So, when the vault doors were open my girlfriend and I headed out into the vast wasteland.

We ended up in a town called Megaton where I met two members of the Brotherhood of Steel. We talked and they said they were not looking for recruits at the moment but to check back soon. A few years of adventuring later my girlfriend had been killed by Super Mutants and I became a Knight in the BoS. With them I had been all over the Capitol Wasteland. I helped defeat a large group of Super Mutants in an area now called Canterbury Commons, defended the so called Republic of Dave from a Deathclaw attack, helped kill two weird, glowing ghouls harassing Megaton the BoS called "Glowing Ones," and during this time I had been moved into a special unit called Light of the Wastes.

I had been with the BoS for about 15 years before I went into a semi-retirement, I didn't have to parade around with them anymore but if my help was ever needed I could be called upon. I settled down in a decent shack in Megaton and sat around most of my days for about a year, that's when the kid from 101 showed up…

It was a quite day, everyone was doing the usual, be it managing their stores or just drinking at Moriarty's. I was sitting at a little table I had set up outside of my front door, it was angled so I could see the whole town perfectly from my elevated position, and watching everyone walking around and just relaxing when I looked out towards the main entrance and saw someone walk in wearing a blue jumpsuit. I stood up and walked over to the railing to see what was going on, I recognized the jumpsuit as one issued to all residents of a Vault- Tec vault. Lucas Simms, the towns' sheriff and mayor, walked over to the newcomer and started a conversation, after about a minute he pointed towards the bomb that was in town and then Moriarty's and the two shook hands.

I watched her walk towards the bomb, she was about 5'9" with red hair tied up kind of like Moira Brown's, and she was kind of scrawny but looked athletic. As she was examining the nuclear bomb Megaton was built around I headed into Moriarty's to wait for her to come in. It was only a few minutes later when the door opened and she entered the establishment. She walked over to Gob and struck up a conversation; she seemed very well mannered and didn't say a thing about his face, something almost no one has ever done before. I heard her ask if he had seen a man pass through here recently and he said she would have to ask Moriarty about it.

"What do ye want from me?" Colin asked, irritated by the girl.

"Have you seen a man come by here recently? I'm looking for him, he's my dad. We're from the vault nearby, Vault 101." She replied in an innocent tone.

Too much information, I thought to myself, Moriarty will never tell her anything now unless he gets something in return.

"So you be James' daughter then? First him, now you? What a surprise!" Colin said in a sarcastic tone.

"So you've seen him then?" The girl asked Colin.

"Maybe I have, maybe I haven't? What's it worth to you? I'm thinking…100 caps?" Colin said to her with a chuckle.

"But I don't have 100 caps! I just got here!" She replied, her face was turning red now.

"Aye, that's too bad, isn't it?" Colin said as he walked into the back room.

The girl seemed pretty flustered and walked over to a table near me and took a seat, she seemed to be contemplating her next move. As she was sitting at her table a man I've seen before, Burke I think, approached her, he was wearing a dingy looking suit with a fedora and sunglasses. I also noticed that at his waist was a 10mm pistol, it also had a silencer attached to it.

So he could do all of his dirty work quietly, I thought to myself. I looked up slightly so I could see as well as hear the whole conversation but still look like I was minding my own business just drinking some whiskey.

"I couldn't help but overhear you're looking for someone?" The man asked her.

"Yes, his name is James, he's from Vault 101 and he's my father." The girl replied.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I saw a man pass through here wearing the same jumpsuit as you." He replied back taking a seat at her table.

"Could you tell me anything about where he was going?" The girl asked eagerly.

"I could…but first I need something from you…" The man said then leaned forward to whisper to her.

I could see she was a bit surprised and confused but shook her head in agreement. The man slipped something to her and proceeded to walk out the door. She was looking around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, I returned to my bottle of whiskey before she saw me looking at her. She stood up and walked out of the saloon and that was the last I saw of her until nightfall.

_A few hours later…_

It was late and most of the residents of Megaton were at home either sleeping or seeing how many caps they had made today. I was sitting out at my table again when I heard the splash of water and knew someone was near the bomb. I stood up and walked over to the railing and looked down, the girl from 101 was tinkering with the bomb. I followed the walkway down and proceeded to sneak up on her to see what she was doing. She looked very confused and had the panel to the bomb open with a strange remote in her hand; she looked like she was trying to connect something to the bomb.

"Having a little trouble with something, kid?" I said while walking out from the shadows.

The girl jumped and whatever was in here hand fell into the water causing a little spark and some smoke to rise from it.

"Not anymore…"She said quietly looking down at her only hope to find her father.

"I heard you wanted to find your dad but what were you doing? Burke told you to do something to the bomb, didn't he?" I asked her.

"He wanted me to help remove this "eyesore" from the wasteland, he said his employer was sick of looking at it…"She replied.

"Well I'll tell you, I knew that Burke was no good. I know you want to find your father but you were going to blow up an entire town?" I said, before she could reply I continued, "Well we'll just have to give Burke a little visit and try to find out what he knows." I finished.

With the girl following we made our way up to Burke's little shack he had in Megaton. I knocked and there was no reply so I forced the door open, the room was empty except for a few empty bottles of random liquor and some paper on the table. I took the paper and started to read, there was nothing of real importance until the last page. The last page looked like a map; it marked Megaton, Super Duper Mart, RoboCo Factory, and a place called Tenpenny Tower with a little star next to it.

I showed the girl the map and said, "Guess where we're going?"

She looked excited, at first I decided to help her out because of the threat Burke and his employer were to the town I now lived in. She didn't know but I knew exactly where her father went, I figured this would be a good excuse if anyone asked about me going to Tenpenny Tower once my overall goal was completed. Ultimately though, this girl was about to bring me on a whole new adventure I would have never dreamed about in all of my days of being an explorer of the wastes...


	2. Chapter 2: Tenpenny Tower

**Chapter 2: Tenpenny Tower**

The girl and I headed over to Lucas Simms house and knocked on the door. It was about 11 p.m. outside and I wasn't sure what to expect this late at night.

"Who's there?" We heard Simms yell from inside the house.

"It's Vincent! I need your help with something!" I shouted back to him.

The door soon opened and Simms let the two of us inside.

"What's going on Vince? It's pretty late to have something you need help with." Lucas said while rubbing his eyes.

The next hour or so was spent telling Simms about what was going on with the girl from the vault, Burk, and Tenpenny Tower. Lucas Simms was the one man I knew I could trust in Megaton and would be the only one to hear about these plans.

"…And so we are going to head out at dawn and were hoping we could get some help from you." I finally finished with my story.

"Well I'd love to come and help you, you know defeat the bad guy and save the town and what not, but I need to stay here incase anything happens in town…I can bring you to the armory in town and let you stock up before you go though." Lucas told the two of us.

"Any help would be great at this point." I said.

The three of us went outside and saw that the sun was beginning to rise and made our way over to the armory. Lucas opened the door with his key and entered with us so that Deputy Steel, the Mister Gutsy robot protecting the armory, wouldn't attack us. The girl and I each took a 10mm pistol and a Chinese Assault Rifle, these guns were in rough condition but it was all we had. I walked over to the back of the room and also found a Combat Shotgun that I grabbed, just in case.

"Well, we're heading out. Thanks for the help Lucas; you've always been a good friend to me, hehe." I said, the two of us shaking hands.

We proceeded to the front gate of the city, it had been almost a year since I've ventured out into the wasteland, and I wonder how much it had changed…

_3 hours later…_

Over the course of the past few hours I learned the girls' full story and even her name, Samantha. We encountered only a few bloatflies along the way, it seemed that we were going to make it to Tenpenny Tower unscathed when we heard gunfire going on in the distance. At the top of a nearby hill we crouched down and I pulled out my binoculars to look into the distance. Near an old abandoned factory we saw a couple of Raiders in a firefight with two people dressed in scavengers' clothes and a Mister Gutsy robot. The Raiders didn't seem to be fairing well and started to retreat, and then I realized they were running towards us.

"There are three of them left, they are headed towards us, get your pistol ready and don't shoot until I do." I whispered to Sam.

She looked like she knew what she was doing so I proceeded to get my rifle ready and aimed at the Raider leading the retreat. They were just at the base of the hill when I opened fire on them with Sam following my lead; they looked surprised and were shot down before they even had time to realize what had just happened. We walked down the blood covered hill to the bodies to see if there was anything of interest on them. I ended up with a few more bullets for my shotgun and a Combat knife while Sam got some ammo for her pistol.

"Alright let's keep going, I can see the tower from here." I said to Sam and we continued our journey towards the great tower, the scavengers were already long gone by the time the Raiders were dead.

We had made it to the base of the tower and were looking for the main entrance when I heard talking, I told Sam to stay low and to get her pistol ready. We rounded the corner to see a ghoul talking into an intercom.

After a short yelling match between the ghoul and the intercom the ghoul stormed off in the other direction and we approached the now empty intercom.

"Hello?" I said into the intercom.

"I've already told you we're not going to let you in!" The man yelled through the speaker.

"We're not ghouls; we're just looking for a man named Burke." I calmly told the man.

"Oh, you know Mr. Burke? Hmmmm, well, if you know him then I guess you can come inside. Just don't go around starting trouble everywhere!" The man told us as he opened the front gate.

We walked through the gate and saw the man who was harassing the ghoul; he was wearing some armor that I thought I've seen before and an assault rifle.

"I'm the head of security around here, people call me Chief Gustavo. Mr. Burke is located on the top floor, probably with Mr. Tenpenny, carry on and don't cause any trouble!" Gustavo told the both of us.

Sam and I walked in through the front entrance into the lobby and proceeded to walk towards the elevator in the back of the room. I hit the button to summon the elevator and while we stood there I saw a familiar face.

"Herbert?" I half exclaimed half questioned.

"Hrmmm?...Vincent!" The man said back to me.

"It's been some time Herbert." I said to the man while shaking his hand.

Herbert, commonly called Herbert "Daring" Dashwood, was an adventurer who I met nearly ten years ago in the wastes. Herbert was traveling with a ghoul at the time and helped me reach Rivet City.

"Only a couple of years now, what are you doing here?" Herbert asked me, "And who's this charming young lady?"

Samantha blushed, "This is Samantha, and I was escorting her here to make sure she arrived safely." I told Herbert, "Enough about the two of us though, what are you doing here and where's Argyle?"

"Well, about that…Argyle went missing some time ago on my last adventure, I know he's still out in the wastes somewhere but I'm too old now to find him." Herbert said while the elevator doors opened.

"Well Herbert, it was nice to see you again but I have to see Mr. Tenpenny about Samantha here." I told him.

"Well it was nice seeing you to Vince, and it was a pleasure meeting you, Ms. Samantha" Herbert commented before walking off towards the lounge.

The elevator ride was a quick and silent one because the two of us were getting ready for what was going to happen next. Samantha was mentally preparing to discover the location of her father while I was checking my guns to make sure everything went smoothly for us when it was time for action. The doors opened and we were confronted by a security guard who was just finishing up on the intercom.

"You two are here for Mr. Burke and Mr. Tenpenny, right?" The guard asked.

"Yah, which room are they in?" I asked back.

"Follow me." The guard responded.

I motioned Sam to follow and we proceeded to the door and waited for the guard to unlock it. Once the door was opened we were instructed to go through the door in the back out to the balcony. We walked through the door and found ourselves on the highest floor balcony looking over the wasteland. Burke was talking to Tenpenny when we opened the door and quickly stopped when he saw the two of us.

"Samantha, we meet again. And Vincent? What a surprise." Burke said to the two of us.

"I'm here to find out where my dad went!" Samantha exclaimed.

"I trust you held up your part of the bargain?" Burke asked Sam.

"Fortunately, she didn't. I snuck up on her and she wasn't able too." I told Burke.

"Then what are you doing here Samantha? You know I won't tell you anything. Why come at all?" Burke asked Sam.

"It was my idea to come," I informed him, "She doesn't need to destroy a whole town to figure out where her father is. We're here to make sure that you don't threaten anyone ever again."

Sam looked surprised and was hesitant in what she was to do next. I quickly pulled up my rifle and pointed it at Burkes' head; she pulled out her pistol and pointed it at Tenpenny before he could do anything to help his right hand man.

"Now don't I get a say in any of this?" Tenpenny asked, "Look out into the horizon and tell me that that "town" is not an eyesore. It's a disgrace to this tower and needs to be dealt with!"

"Enough!" I yelled, "Sam, we don't need these two, I know where your dad is. I just needed a reason to deal with Burke, after this we can head out towards your dad."

"…Alright, I trust you Vince." She replied back to me.

I was ready to end Burkes' life right there and then but the guard from earlier came rushing in.

"Mr. Tenpenny the tower is under attack from ghouls!" The guard shouted not even paying attention to Sam and me.

"Well Vincent, Samantha, seems like we'll need to settle this later." Tenpenny said calmly.

Tenpenny left the room with Burke closely behind after giving us a strange look. This wasn't what I planned, I thought to myself, but if the ghouls don't kill them, I will. Sam and I went back to the elevator but waited there debating our next move because of the ghouls.

"We'll have to fight our way out, I know where your father is and I won't abandon you because of this mess I've got you into." I told Sam.

"You think we'll get out of this?" Sam asked me.

"We will…trust me." I replied, and with that we entered the elevator and pressed the button for the bottom floor.


	3. Chapter 3: Raider's Revenge

**Chapter 3: Raider's Revenge**

Second time in the elevator, second time that silence took over the both of us. This time both of us were preparing mentally for the task ahead of us. Ghouls had overrun Tenpenny Tower and the only way out was through them. Our weapons were still in workable condition and ammo wasn't to scarce at the moment, if it came down to it I also had the knife I took from the Raiders' body earlier in the day. The elevator came to a stop and I could see Sam's grip tighten on here Assault rifle.

"We'll get through this; I've been in crazier situations before." I told Sam trying to reassure her.

"…I know, I've already told you that I trust you, I wasn't lying." Sam responded.

The doors of the elevator opened and it looked like a fucking warzone, bullets were flying everywhere and ghouls were running around like crazed men. Blood was splattered on the walls and bodies were lying everywhere, both human and ghoul. The ghouls seemed to outnumber the guards at least 2-to-1 so Sam and I rushed out basically shooting anything that moved. We mowed down a good amount of ghouls, in the process I found Tenpenny's body and took his sniper rifle, before I saw it. A bright, neon green ghoul burst through the double front door, I yelled to Sam to run but it was too late. The Glowing One rushed towards Sam with its arms stretched in front of it and tackled her to the ground; her scream could have been heard throughout the tower.

"Sam!" I yelled.

I had lifted up my assault rifle and within a split second the ghoul was in my sight and I had let out a couple of bursts, I knew I had hit it a couple of times when I saw some blood splatter from it. Now the ghoul had set its sights on me and was rushing at an unbelievable speed. The clip in my rifle was empty so I tossed it and grabbed my pistol and let off a couple of rounds before the ghoul got to me, I pulled my knife and stabbed it in the throat when it was within inches of me. Of course the knife barely slowed it down so I booted it in the chest which sent it back a few feet; I reloaded my pistol and finished it off with a few bullets to the head. Its brains or whatever was in its head now lay scattered on the floor around and behind the body of the ghoul, I ran towards Sam who was on one knee clutching her left side.

"Now's our chance! The doorway is clear; I'm getting you out of here." I told Sam.

"Vince! I'll give you a hand. I need to get out of here, too!" Herbert yelled from behind me.

"Alright Herbert. Cover me while we get out of here!" I yelled back.

I picked up Sam and went as fast as I could towards the doorway with the occasional shot heard behind me. Luckily Herbert was alright or today would have been our last, I thought to myself. The three of us made it out of Tenpenny Tower and kept running without saying a word for a few minutes until I thought it was safe enough to stop and assess Samantha's wound. Her Vault suit was torn on the left side of her abdomen all the way down to her leg with a few large, deep cuts on her abdomen.

"Here, I've got some Stimpaks, Med-X, and some cloth wrappings," Herbert said pulling them out of a backpack he had, "I know you're handier with the medical stuff."

I took 2 Stimpaks and applied one to her abdomen and one to her left leg and did the same with the Med-X. I used the knife I had to cut away some of the suit clinging to the blood on her, Herbert poured some water on a piece of the cloth wrappings and I cleaned the wound, she was twitching every time the cloth touched her.

"Don't worry Sam, this will make you better." I told her, she seemed to calm down after that.

The rest of the wrapping was wrapped around her to cover the wounds she had and a medical brace Herbert had in his pack was put on to her left leg because she was limping when she finally got up.

"We've got to find a sheltered spot to rest until tomorrow, Sam can't travel all the way back to Megaton until she gets some rest." I told Herbert.

"Well, from my time at the tower I've noticed a factory type build to the north," Herbert told me, "From what I've saw it seems pretty quiet, there is a man with a few robots that walk around the front entrance every now and then though."

"We'll deal with him when the time comes. Sam, did you hear Herbert? We've got to get moving, you don't want to be caught in the wastes at night unprepared, let's go." I said.

Sam stood up and wobbled for a second, she's been quiet since we escaped from the tower, I don't blame her; I remember the first time I came face to face with a glowing one. She leaned up against me and I helped her make the trek to the old RobCo building Herbert knew about. When we made it to the edge of the parking lot the man Herbert was talking about came out of the building with a robot, looked like a military Mister Handy.

"Who are you?" The man yelled towards us.

"Just some wanderers hoping to find shelter for the night." I yelled back to him.

"Anyone hurt?" The man yelled; he seemed to trust us, maybe on the account of out gunning us with that robot of his.

"The girls hurt, we need some place to spend the night then we'll leave." I told the man walking closer to him.

"The names Joe, people call me Tinker Joe on account of my fix'n old items of interest." The man told us when we were at the entrance of the building.

"Name's Vince, the girl here is Samantha and the old man's Herbert." I told Joe as we walked inside of the old factory, he told the old robot to stay outside and keep guard.

I helped Sam over to a nearby chair and she took a seat, I saw Joe and Herbert walk off into the next room so I took a seat in a chair across from her. We sat there for a little bit in silence, I was contemplating our next move which was to head back to Megaton, drop off Herbert, and go see Three Dog because I know Sam's father went off in that direction.

"Thanks for getting me out of the tower and fixing me up." Sam said.

"No problem, I told you I was going to get you out to see your father and I never break a promise. Luckily Herbert was still alive and had some supplies on him otherwise I'm not sure how long you would have lasted." I responded.

"You think Herbert has a change of clothes in that pack of his?" Sam asked looking down at her suit.

"Knowing Herbert he probably has a change of clothes or two, he should be back soon, I don't think there's too much to see in this old factory, you can ask him then." I said.

With that we sat in silence until I heard a noise at the front door. I grabbed my pistol and walked towards the door with my gun held up when the robot came through.

"Commie threat neutralized!" The robot shouted then turned around and went outside.

"Was that the Sergeant?" Joe said coming around the corner of the other room.

"The Sergeant? If you're talking about the robot then yes, it was. What did he mean by commie threat neutralized?" I asked Joe.

"The Sergeant was pre-war built meant to fight the commies of the Great War. Basically, anything that is a threat to me or him is considered a commie to him, probably some raiders or a mole rat or something." Joe explained.

"Well he seems like a capable fighter; at least we're safe from a surprise attack. Herbert, you have any spare clothes in that pack of yours, it's for Sam?" I asked.

"I'll take a look, I'm sure I have something," Herbert said while rummaging through his backpack, "Here you go Sam, hope it fits, if not you can just make it fit, here's a knife."

Sam accepted the clothes and went into the restroom to change, Herbert had a suspicious looking smile on his face and looked at me, and I shook my head no.

"She's too young for you Herbert." I said.

His smile changed from mischievous to humorous and he went to explore the rest of the factory, this time Joe stayed behind with me but nothing was said for awhile. Sam eventually came out with her new clothes on, it looked like an old mercenaries outfit that Herbert probably wore once during his adventures, she had cut it a bit and used her old boots to make everything comfortable for herself.

"Seems to be a good fit on you. We should get some rest now; we need to head back to Megaton tomorrow morning." I told Sam.

Herbert came back a few minutes later and it was decided that Joe, Herbert, and myself would take turns as the interior guard while The Sergeant kept guard outside. I fell asleep shortly after my head hit the mattress I was staying on and it seemed like less than a few hours had gone by before my shift came up. By now it was around 1 or 2 in the morning and Herbert had nothing to report so I was figuring it was going to be an easy job…I was wrong. About an hour after I started my guard duty I found myself dazing off when The Sergeant came in through the front door with a blinking red light going off.

"Commie bastards have us outnumbered! America will not die!" The Sergeant shouted out waking up the others.

"What's the robot talking about, Joe?" I asked Joe.

"He usually says that when he detects a group of hostiles nearby, could be anything from a pack of mole rats to a group of Raiders or Ghouls." Joe told me.

"Well whatever it is we need a plan, we need…" I was interrupted by the front door being blown off its hinges.

"We're not dealing with any mole rats!" Joe shouted readying his shotgun.

The rest of us grabbed whatever gun was close to us and started firing at the front door; we heard grunts and shouts and saw blood shooting everywhere. When Joe and Herbert had to reload I saw what we were dealing with; a group of surprisingly well armed Raiders. Not just 2 or 3 but at least 5 of them and they seemed organized, they didn't rush in guns firing all over the place. The first one to come in rushed over to Joe and got him in the head with the butt of his rifle, not before getting stabbed in the gut though. The other two got over too Herbert and tackled him subduing him to the ground doing the same to Sam soon after. I was the last one standing with Sergeant and was able to shoot down one more Raider and get one in the side with my knife before we started fighting hand-to-hand with each other. I had the upper hand because of his wound so when he went in for a punch I saw him clinch his side instead and nailed him in the temple with my right fist, as he dropped three more came in the door and overwhelmed me. The Sergeant was able to fry a few with his flamethrower before he was deactivated. The last thing I saw was Sam kicking and yelling trying to break free, to no avail due to her leg and abdomen, before I was knocked out by one of the bastards.


End file.
